Wawona Hotel
History
In 1855, Galen Clark, a miner whose health had suffered in the Gold Camps, passed through the Wawona Valley area with a party of tourists bound for Yosemite. Entranced by the beauty of the place, Clark returned in 1856 and built a crude 12-by-16 foot log cabin near a spring on the west end of the meadow. That was the beginning of Clark's Station, later called Big Tree Station and the predecessor of the Wawona Hotel, though the present-day hotel is located on the far side of the meadow where Clark moved his "inn" before 1860.
In 1878, a kitchen fire destroyed all of the old buildings at Clark's Station and the entire establishment was rebuilt and opened the following year. The only buildings to survive the fire of 1878 were the stables and Long White (now named Clark Cottage in honor of Galen Clark), which opened in 1876. Within a week of the fire, Joseph Shelly, builder of the Long White, was hired to redesign the hotel and construction started on a large two-story building that would include a lobby, sitting room, dining room, office and 25 guest rooms. Although accounts vary, it is believed the new hotel opened for business in the summer of 1879.
In 1882 the hotel's name changed to the Indian word, Wah-wo-nah, meaning "Big Tree" and one year later that name proved prophetic; Wawona had outgrown its reputation as a pioneer stage stop and primitive inn to become a self-sustaining mountain resort of importance and appeal. In 1932 the Wawona Valley area was added to Yosemite National Park and Yosemite Park & Curry Co. took over the operation of the hotel.
Today, the Wawona Hotel is operated by DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite and remains one of the most respected mountain resorts in the country, and one of the oldest in the state.
